Half-term and Hajj boosts Manchester Airport

A bumper half-term and the Hajj Festival in Saudi Arabia helped Manchester Airport grow year-on-year passenger numbers by nearly five per cent last month. The airport carried a total of 1.76m passengers in October, a rise of 4.77 per cent on the same month last year, when it handled 1.68m.

A bumper half-term and the Hajj Festival in Saudi Arabia helped Manchester Airport grow year-on-year passenger numbers by nearly five per cent last month.

The airport carried a total of 1.76m passengers in October, a rise of 4.77 per cent on the same month last year, when it handled 1.68m.

Scheduled international routes enjoyed a surge of nearly 14 per cent while domestic services carried 5.14 per cent more passengers. Those increases more than offset a 15.8 per cent decline in charter traffic.

Among the popular destinations for families seeking some half-term sunshine were Palma in Majorca, Tenerife, Alicante, Malaga and Dalaman in Turkey.

Andrew Harrison, chief operating officer at Manchester Airports Group, said: “October was a busy month for us. With half-term taking place, we saw over 332,000 passengers jetting off for some early winter sun, which was an eight per cent rise on October half-term last year.

“The Hajj Festival in October also gave the airport number a boost with thousands of Muslim passengers from the north travelling to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.”

Mr Harrison said he remains confident for the winter season, with new services to Stockholm, Gdansk in Poland and Riga in Latvia expected to help drive demand.